RedDirtRoads

One month out tomorrow. Doing well. Big adjustment. Lost 12 lbs week one, another 6 week 2, another 9 past two weeks. 25 lbs so far. Weight loss slowed when I started cottage cheese. I added tuna a few days early I needed something more substantial. The fake creamy Soups were horrible. Adding GENEPRO to my favorite broth and crystal light gets my Protein in. But I have 3 meals of yogurt, Protein coffee drink, tuna or lunch meat.
I had a scrambled egg tonight and it was heaven. Kaiser said none for eight weeks but my surgeon told me yesterday that it was okay. Finding it difficult to get the Vitamins in because all the chewables and liquids I got make me sick. I was so afraid I wouldn't be able to take regular pills I got everything I could chewable or liquid. Yuk. I'm working on it.
Thankfully I can drink Water with almost no restriction The problem is making sure I stop enough time to eat. Not quite getting in my 64 ounces but it's just because of timing. It's such a big adjustment not knowing how much to eat. I'll eat three or four bites of something and then when I have another all the sudden it hurts. I have not found when to stop?
It's not like they're large amounts i'm not sure how or when you can actually sit and eat a small meal. Sometimes I wonder if it will ever be possible. I just make sure I don't go out where other people are eating because eating a few bites is strange.
So the one recommendation I have is to take a few bites very slowly. I still have a tendency I think to eat faster than I should and you will get pain if you do.
Walking 1 to 2 miles a day. Hoping for the best .

I had lost a lot of weight in the past (though gained it all back quickly & more) so I had to deal with a lot of very inappropriate comments about my weight loss and it always unsettled me. I hated my weight loss (and regain) always being the topic of the day wherever I went! So, this time, in doing the emotional prep work for this surgery, I've already come up with a response that I think will defuse some of the unsolicited & unwanted comments. If anyone goes beyond a nice simple, "wow, you look great". and starts in asking things like "how much has you lost?", or commenting on how fat I was before, etc, I will just smile sweetly and say "I am bored talking about my body, let's talk about yours now!" I figure that will stop things pretty fast. :-)

@@txdogmom
"they" initially complimented you on your weight loss
telling you they see the loss in your face and boobs
well thats ok
when she commented that "boobs" aren't hanging on your stomach
"kindof" a left handed compliment
i don't think it was meant as being mean/rude
it does sound weird to hear that comment (especially if this was not a GOOD/close friend
take the comment as it was intended
any/all compliments are good
even if it might sound "unkooth" (msp )
60 lbs down!!!
keep up the great job
kathy
congrats

The first two months my hair was really oily. I assumed it was my body getting rid of all the toxins I had presurgery. I don't know if that's right but it sounds reasonable ha. My hair doesn't get as greasy 4 mos out tho (:

You and your 10-year-old kid can BOTH fit in your old sports coat.... and button it!

When visiting my sisters home with my young kids, I JUMPED on the trampoline with them instead of watching from the sidelines. What a blast!!!!

Great list; looks very similar to my own at this point! I love to take peel and eat shrimp with a little cocktail sauce to work for lunch. My co-workers think I'm fancy. Which I am.

I'm fairly certain I got fat out of convenience. I am not lazy by any means, I am actually super busy. I have two kids who go to different schools, neither in our district so I have to drive them both and pick them both up. They both do activities after school and are on totally different schedules. I own a business that I run from my house that has me in the car most of the time and I spend a few hours of each day at my martial arts school. I'm fairly anal about keeping my house in order and I like to have dinner most nights for my family, even if we don't all get to sit down and eat together. I barely have a minute to myself but I know that my lifestyle is not at all unusual.
You'd think I'd be like my best friend, super skinny because there is no time to eat, but I was the queen of fast food. I loved Wawa because of the huge variety of chips and Snacks and convenience foods on the go and it was nothing for me to go through a drive through for myself 2-3 times a day. I didn't feed my family fast food because I know how unhealthy it is but that didn't seem to apply to me in my mind.

One of my biggest obstacles after WLS was the lack of convenience foods for quick grab and go. I need a lot LESS food at a sitting, but I need quality food now or I feel miserable. After 19 months, I have finally found some staples that I can keep in my fridge for convenience and now that it's cold out, my cooler keeps my snacks fresh all day. My capacity is VERY small, so I do eat 5-6 mini meals a day which is a bigger challenge and I really prefer real foods over Protein Drinks and bars as does my NUT. When I want to eat, I want REAL food, not snacks.
Suggestions to make your busy life easier and healthier. I would love you to add yours, too. As you will see, I do high Protein, low carb and I don't give a flying fart about fat. High fat is OK in my book. These are the foods I keep in my fridge, prepped and ready for a quick, I'm starving "meal/snack".

cheese. Full fat, yummy delicious REAL cheese. Cubed up off a block.

Shrimp. Steamed or in a shrimp salad (aka mayo and spices).
London Broil. I marinate and grill a London Broil every other week or so. I slice it thin, serve it for dinner and then snack on the leftovers for the rest of the week. Happy girl with my read meat.< /p>
Deviled eggs. Yum! Not just for Easter anymore.

Browned ground beef seasoned with salt, pepper and garlic. I keep a bowl of it cooked and ready. I add mozzarella or cheddar to a quarter cup or so, pop in the microwave, heat and eat.
Refried Beans. Add cheese or the browned meat above and YUM!

Good quality hot dogs. I know, yuck, right? But roll one up in a paper towel, nuke it for 45 seconds and it's all meat, no carbs and delish. I do all beef and light. They don't go bad so a pack of six will stay in my fridge for three weeks or so safely.

Ham Slice. I grill and cub one of those Smithfield ham slices that's about 1/2 inch thick. The kids and husband will throw it on salad, in a tortilla or eat in an omelette and I just eat out of the container.
I'm not a fan of chicken, it sticks terribly, but my kids love rotisserie chicken so I cube up the leftovers into a curry chicken salad that's almost always ready. I can manage anything with mayo. REAL MAYO.
Bacon. I cook a pound and keep it in the fridge. It goes just like the ham.

Frozen mini quiche. At Target and Sam's they even have crustless quiche. YUM!

What are your convenience REAL foods?

SW 250
CW 226
3 weeks out!
I have ankles! I wore boots today that my calf would FILL, there was lots of room in them today and my feet didn't go numb like they normally do. Luvin it! The scale hasnt moved this week so these NSV get me thru!

I think it is possible your stomach is still swollen at this point . . . I was about 12 days out before I could get fluids in "normally". In the beginning it was taking me 2 days to drink one 32 oz Powerade zero.

Pre-op diet-10 since surgery -34!!! I'm shocked and beyond happy to have lost 44 lbs and counting!!! So excited to be getting my beat body back! Starting the gym tomorrow... "It's about to go down" (in my Kevin hart voice)

I'm a little further out than you and on "regular" foods but I get around 700 calories max right now. Almost Half of which comes from my 2 Protein Drinks a day. For Breakfast I had 1 egg and 1/4 cup of crumbled turkey sausage.I'm big on lean meats and fancy cheeses right now...I had 2 oz of low sodium turkey and 1 1/2 oz of a variety of cheeses for lunch. That's all I can eat at once. dinner will probably be a lean meat and a boiled egg (mainly the white) Then my second Protein Drink later on.....well anyway there's an idea of a day of eating food with shakes. All that adds up to the 700 (usually less) calories and maybe 11 carbs. Just an example, you will be there soon. I wouldn't try to live on just yogurt and shakes though...you will need to start learning the right foods to eat. Good luck!

At that stage my guidelines were to stay under 800 calories per day. Personally I don't think that liquids and yogurt have any magical weight-reducing properties. As long as you are getting your calories from healthy foods and following generally acceptable macros for protein/fat/carbs post WLS you should be fine. But if you are more comfortable with Protein Shakes and yogurt, I don't see any harm sticking with them, as long as you are getting adequate nutrition. But you will definitely want your dietician's input!

I was sleeved on April 24,2012
Starting weight:232
Current weight:190
I stalled at 2 weeks post op, but dropped major inches!
Seems like I might be in a stall again, 4 th day no pounds lost, but my clothes are getting baggy again!! I would like to weigh between 140-145.
Sent from my iPhone using VST

My starting weight was 206 lbs....my goal was to lose 80 lbs. I reached my goal in 8 months with zero stalls. I consistently lost weight every week. I did join a gym but in no way was I doing anything vigorous...I started walking on a treadmill at 2.5 mph, thats all I could do.
As for extra skin, I have a small bit of excess skin on my belly, hips and arms, but only noticable to me...someday It'd be fun to have plastic surgery but it isn't really necessary at all. I went from a size 18 (that was getting tight) to a 4. I've now lost 84 lbs and weigh 121...I feel amazing and truth be told it was the easiest thing I have ever done. Of course the first couple weeks on the liquid diet and the next few weeks on restriction were difficult but that seems like the blink of an eye now. Now I eat literally whatever I want, but I track every single calorie on myfitnesspal.com.
Good luck to all....I have absolutely loved this path!!

There is no doubt about it...the first 2 weeks pretty much SUCK. Make sure to see your surgeon to see if in fact you are healing properly, and make sure to get your fluids in no matter what it takes!

I look at that first couple weeks the same way as being in labor...it sucks while you're going through it, but the end result is worth it and soon it will all be a distant memory

With having so many people know about the surgery, friends, family and co workers. I feel they are all waiting to see if I can do it. Maybe the pressure of that is why I feel like I do.

That is wonderful! Congratulations on your success! I guess I try to compare to see if im doing it right. I have a huge fear that the weight will stop coming off and I won't be a success story. Which I never ever felt before the surgery or even after losing 22 pounds so far. I have no clue why I feel that way, but I do. ???? I'm very excited for spring and summer, seeing as I should have "something to show for "all that I've gone thru so far..

My belly no longer touches the steering wheel when I drive!! I'm short so I have to get pretty close to the wheel anyway and this has always been such a source of embarrassment to me when others rode with me. YEAH!!

when i had my surgery, i was so large i could hardly walk...walking to the bathroom was nearly impossible.
i could not do anything.when i was at home, i marched in placed..2 minutes and i thought i was having a heart attack....at work, when i went to the bathroom, it was 84 steps one way. that was my exercise for about 6 months..i was so heavy, i could not do anything...the more i lost (due to me not being able to eat much) helped build my confidence..i started walking to the end of my driveway and back. thats it..and then i walked to the corner of the street...you dont have to run a marathon to lose weight..you just need to get your mind straight..so we have a weight problem..OK, we had WLS to help us..now we just have to help ourselves..somedays i dont wanna do anything but eat potato chips...my motivation is looking at my highest weight ever picture..and it was a 5x stretch skirt...i do not want to be that ever again..its either do or not...so you dont want to work out today....dont....just be careful with your calorie intake then...if you eat more calories than you burn off, you wont lose and may gain....so its vice versa....like @@finediva said...take a walk...walk down the hall and back........GREAT JOB if you do that...you can..yes you can....if you wanted to
♥

Mindful eating - not eating while watching tv, reading, using the computer - is suppose to help us not overeat. If you measure everything that goes on your plate and eat slowly you really should have no problem IMO.
Summer

I'm three days post op and have been a type II Diabetic for 10 plus years. I've been medicated on and off with Insulin, Glucophage, and Diabeta at different intervals during that time having been on Glucophage only these last several years. Uncontrolled type two diabetes has brought me cataracts in both eyes and other health related issues.
My surgeon had me discontinue meds after surgery. As of yesterday, my glucose numbers are completely normal and Dr. says they should stay this way. I am both amazed and awed at the turn around the sleeve has brought me already.

Sitting in waiting room at my 3 week post op! I'll let yall know how it goes!

Glad to hear you are doing well! May I ask what group you are part of Facebook? I am in 3 already but I love having others that understand to talk to . . . hope all continues to improve for you.
Oh yeah, you're lucky, I had to keep that darn drain in for a week. :-( Probably the worst part of this whole experience.

At my third month visit with the bariatrician, I was switched from chewables to Bariatric Advantage AE, which I get online from www.bariatricadvantage.com. I call them my Bariatric Advantage AE horse pill stink a** Vitamin. They are huge like a pre-natal Vitamin and have everything in them that I was paying for all of the chewables individually. At my six month visit with bloodwork, my numbers were excellent.
No lie, they are big. I could not swallow them. I cut them in half - still too big. I cut them in fours which made them swallowable, but the pieces had sharp corners on them. So now I pulverize it with a mortar and pestle and add them to yogurt (which I put sugar free raspberry jam in it) or fruit flavored Jello Water or chocolate pudding to mask the berry-ish stench. I have even put it in cranberry-grape juice, which was sort of ok.
The vitamin does its job, but ewwwwww!